Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-09
THE BUSTLE AS FREIGHT.
A Question that Puzzled Rail.
road Men.


A Question that Puzzled Rail-
road Men.
An interesting controversy has beer
agitating the minds and hearts Of the
freight agents Of transcontinental rail
roads, the pool commissioners, the in.
terstate commerce commissioners, and
the California dry goods merchants
since early in February.
And it is all about bustles. Although
this article has long occupied II place
of dignity and prominence i'll the
wardrobe of the properly appareled
woman, and has formed an important
item in the business of merchants,
manufacturers, cartoonists, and com
mon carriers, it had not, until the July
revision occupied place on the freight
taiiff. Then unclassified dry goods
palu a3 per hundred freighting to san
francisco, while hoopskirts, unueI
the classification OF wire goods, were
assessed $3.50 per hundred. 1t was
consequently the custom OF merchants
to ship bustles as wire goods" oi
"hoopskirts indifferently, so describ.
ing them in the bills Of lading and
paying the lower rate of charges
Thousands of cases had thus been
shipped and passed by the freight
agents without question, and the goods
had been sold and gone into
circulation, when an unlucky
manufacturer, in February last,
sent to Stiefel, Sachs q Co., of Sa
Francisco u case of these goods d
scribed in the bill of lading
"bustles." The guileless Californ
freight agent, knowing little and pro-
Tossing to know nothing of this mys-
terious distender OF my lady's dress
and supporter OF her skirts and hopes,
looked in vain for the rate on bustles
in the tariff catalogue. He therefore
charged the rate on the unclassitied
dry goods of So and precipitated the
contest 10y sending in his bill. The
merchants protested against the pay.
ment, and the matter was referred to
the general traffic managers of the
roads in New York.
Some of these were married men
who proiessed to know something
about bustles, for all OF their wives
were supposed to wear them. An ell
derly gentleman from among the ben
edicts was indignant over what he
termed the ''low subterfuge" of class
ing bustles as hoopskirts or wire goods
when there wasn't bit of wire nor Il
hoop of any kind about them. He
ought to know, for his wife has worn
hustle for years. The article was
made OF feathers and cloth; two long,
narrow bags, just wide enough to
to-well, to escape being sat
on, were .sewed together, the
larger one below, and fastened on
with strings. Some of the younger
men seemed amused at his descrlp-
ton, and one inquired if old news
papers were ever employed for stutiing
instead of feathers, A wise looking
man of mature years and large fami-
ly Of girls said that he had it on the
best OF authority that the newspaper
hustle existed ouly in the columns OF
alleged funny papers. A well con-
structed hustle was filed with curled
hair and still better quality with
WOOL. In former years he had pur-
chased such articles himself and he
felt that he was an authority upon the
subject.
The preponderance of testimony,
although it did not agree as to details,
was clearly so far against wire goods"
and hoopskirts, and the traffic man
ayers seemed about to sustain the
charge of $3 per hundred rs unclassi-
fed dry goods when young married
man with scab Oh his nose, who had
listened thus far without speaking,
said he thought there must be some
thing in the wire theory OF construc-
tion. He had gone home late the
week before little the worse for
wear, and was making manly effort
to get to bed without disturbing his
silent partner, when his foot caught
in something that felt like
bird cage about his ankles, and he
pitched forward until he reached the
mantel, which he found with his nose.
He uttered an exclamation which
transformed his silent partner into
one of the most active kind of active
partners, and compelled an explana-
ton. i. A light being produced, the
wreck of the object that had caused
him to fall was brought up for impre-
cation and analysis. 1t was his first
offense, and his wife therefore allowed
her concern over his mishap to DOM
mate her Indignation over the condi-
ton in which he presented himself
So she plastered his nose and said the
wreck didn't matter it could be easily
replaced. :,
''But where's the rest of it? and
what,a hecome of the bird ?o asked
he.
'.The bril-! what do you mean?"
his wife exclaimed.
"Why, isn't that part OF cage?"
he inquired.
"a bird cage! Ha ha!-why, yes;
II am your little birdie, as | used to
be-that's my bustle," she said.
This explanation gave color to the
"wire goods" theory, but still they
were not sufficiently informed and
more light on the subject had to be
obtained. After debating various prop
ositions as to where they should.go
for that light they finally concluded
to 90 to the shippers themselves.
Here they met MIR. Strauss, the book
keeper, who explained to them that
the hustle of commerce was composed
of wire and hoops and crino-
line. In former years they had
been built of cotton and excelsior
and hair and wool and feath-
ers and other things, but never, he
thought, of newspapers. Now they
we're nearly all of wire, and if there
was no classification of bustles and
the articles had superseded. hoop
skirts, they felt that they were only
doing right in billing them us wire
goods. At any rate these were wire
goods, and they would maintain their
right to classification as such. Apples
were always fruit, but not all fruit
were apples, and although not all wire
goods were bustles, all bustles in this
day and generation were wire goods.
This view prevailed. The elderly
married man and the wise looking